TYRE, Lebanon — “If a woman were sitting with you and said the things we say on stage, you might get into an argument with her, tell her why she is wrong,” Jana Ismail, a member of the Tiro Association for Arts, told Al-Monitor. “But once on the stage, alone and directly in front of the audience, she is freer to express herself, her views.” Herein lies the power of monodrama, an art form in which a single actor delivers an extended monologue or a dance piece.

Tiro, along with the Lebanese National Theater and others, is a co-sponsor of the Lebanon International Theater Festival of Women Monodrama, which will bring together seven female artists, including from as far away as Mexico, to address issues of motherhood, displacement, and resilience in the face of conflict. The festival, premiering at the Istanbouli Theatre in Tyre on March 8, International Women's Day, runs through March 12.

The Istanbouli Theatre plays a symbolic role in highlighting Tyre’s turbulent past. The city, the capital of South governorate, was devastated during the Lebanese civil war, losing many of its cultural spaces to the conflict. The Istanbouli, called the Cinema Rivoli from 1959 to 1988, stood abandoned for nearly 30 years.

Ismail explained that the theater had become “a mess,” full of “garbage and rats,” before being renovated through the efforts of Tiro and the help of dedicated volunteers who sometimes slept in the building so they could continue cleaning in the morning after a few hours of shut-eye. The effort put into the renovation, Ismail said, reflected the community's appetite for bringing theater back to Tyre. The Istanbouli opened in 2016.